'Waterboy' StarI Fought in Vietnam ... and There Were Casualties

9/10/2012 8:05 AM PDT

'Waterboy' Star Blake Clark -- I Fought in Vietnam ... and There Were Casualties

EXCLUSIVE

Blake Clark is an American hero ... not just because he starred in "The Waterboy" and "Boy Meets World" -- he's a military vet who served in Vietnam ... and knows first hand about the horrors of war.

Clark -- who's been in a TON of Adam Sandler flicks and also voiced Slinky the dog in "Toy Story 3" -- was at LAX this weekend when we started talking politics.

"I'm not a socialist," Clark told us ... "I killed socialists ... I was in Vietnam ... I was an infantry platoon leader."

Clark was involved in combat missions ... and says he did kill people during the war ... explaining, "That's what you do in combat ... you don't dart 'em and tag 'em and follow their migration ... you kill 'em."

Clark added, "I was a platoon leader ... so my job wasn't actually to shoot people, although I did. Mine was to command the platoon in combat, call in artillery and mortars and air strikes."

We asked if Clark would ever want to participate in a movie about Vietnam ... but the actor told us, "A lot of times directors don't want somebody [with actual war experience] because they think that I would try to direct the movie ... which I wouldn't."